Saints duo start for England against Ireland

Tom Vickers

Saints stars Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood will start for England in the final World Cup warm-up match on Saturday.

And Kieran Brookes also takes his place in the squad for the clash with Ireland at Twickenham, starting the game on the bench.

England kick-off their World Cup campaign against Fiji at Twickenham on September 18.

And the clash with Ireland will be a real test as Stuart Lancaster’s men look to bounce back from a narrow defeat in France.

Lancaster said: “We are excited about this weekend and playing at home and it is another opportunity for these 23 players as we finalise our preparations for the World Cup.

“It’s great to see Brad (Barritt) back along with the guys that missed the Six Nations such as Ben Morgan, Joe Launchbury and Owen Farrell, who now have a Test match under their belts, and it leaves us with lots of options both starting and from the bench.

“The players know that having made the 31 is not enough and we have seen in training how determined they are to be in that squad to play Fiji in the opening game.”